Al-Thani Wins it All at ADRL in Virginia PETERSBURG, VA (May 22, 2010)—This
weekend’s American Drag Racing League (ADRL) Speedtech U.S. Drags
III marked only the second ADRL race of KH Al-Thani’s career, but
in a Pro Extreme class loaded with top talent on a record-breaking
weekend, it was the Qatar native who proved to be the quickest learner. Al-Thani didn’t set any time or speed
records with his supercharged 1968 Camaro on the eighth mile at
Virginia Motorsports Park (VMP) on Saturday, but he did emerge as the
most consistent Pro Extreme competitor, knocking off Joshua Hernandez
in the championship round in front of a near-capacity crowd. Al-Thani’s Al-Anabi Racing teammate
Shannon Jenkins also won in Pro Nitrous, Gary White of Titan
Motorsports prevailed in the Extreme 10.5 final, Brian Gahm
successfully defended his 2009 Extreme Pro Stock event title and Ashley
Owens scored his second consecutive Pro Extreme Motorcycle win. After qualifying second, Al-Thani knocked
off veteran Brian Daniels, rookie Mick Snyder, and former two-time
class champion Jason Scruggs to reach Hernandez, the winningest driver
in Pro Extreme, in the final round. Al-Thani turned in a strong 3.65-seconds
pass at 210.60 mph to beat the 4.00 at 183.22 mph by Hernandez, who had
to pedal his Fight Me MMA (mixed Martial Arts)-backed ’57 Chevy
to regain traction. Al-Thani, the 2009-10 Arabian Drag Racing
League Pro Extreme champion, said having teammates like crew chief
Frank Manzo and newcomers to the team, Tim and Kim Richards, were
critical to his success. “They’ve made a big
difference,” Al-Thani said of the Richards’ tuning
contribution. “You wouldn’t believe how many things
they’ve changed on the car.” After celebrating his 56th birthday and the
top qualifying spot on Friday, Jenkins followed up with a consistent
performance on raceday that included overcoming a holeshot by Steve
Vick in round one, winning with his own holeshot over Jim Halsey in
round two and outrunning Al-Anabi teammate Burton Auxier in the
semi-finals. That set up an entertaining side-by-side
race against “Tricky Rickie” Smith in the final round that
began with the Pro Nitrous legends engaging in a short staging duel
before Jenkins, known as “The Iceman,” left with the
starting-line advantage, then went 3.89 at 194.27 mph in his ’68
Camaro to beat Smith’s 3.95 at 188.83 in a similar ride and earn
his first ADRL win in 10 months. “Rickie’s always going to do
what Rickie does,” the Tuscaloosa, Alabama-based driver said of
his longtime rival making him wait on the line. “But that’s
okay; I just do what I always do, too. It’s fun to race against
him.” In Extreme 10.5, New Market, Alabama’s
Gary White emerged as the Speedtech U.S. Drags III champ, having beaten
Dwayne Wolfe, David Hance, Jeff Naiser and Todd Moyer, setting low
elapsed time (ET) of each round along the way. In the final, Moyer made his best pass of
the day with a game 4.03 at 194.55, but White left with a sizeable
holeshot and set low ET of the meet for the class with a 3.95 run at
186.74 mph in his turbocharged, six-cylinder 2007 Scion. “My
guys have the Titan car running so well right now they’ve made it
easy for me,” said White, who started from the second qualifying
position. “It’s really a pleasure to drive it right
now.” Gahm, from In a classic Ford vs. Chevy showdown, Gahm
left first, then won with a 4.10 pass at 175.07 to Goforth’s 4.12
at 175.57 mph in his ’08 Cobalt. “That’s fun to do,” Gahm
stated. “There are so many great teams out here that it really
gets you up on the wheel to race every one of them. This is the best
racing of its kind anywhere in the world.” Owens, of Decatur, Alabama, did almost
exactly as he did at the ADRL’s previous race last month in
Georgia, only this time he left with not only the race win and a new ET
record; he reset the official Pro Extreme Motorcycle speed record, too. After qualifying his Fast by Gast 2010
Suzuki on top with a then-record 4.06 pass, Owens cruised past Derrick
Holloway and Eric McKinney before officially lowering the class elapsed
time mark to 4.05 in a semi-final win over Kim Morrell, who earlier in
the day had become the ADRL’s quickest and fastest female bike
rider. In the final round, Owens met up with
number-two starter Terry Schweigert from “That felt like a near-perfect
run,” Owens said. “I like to think we can always go a
little faster, but I’ve done this long enough to know you
eventually reach a wall that can be hard to break through. We’ll
see how it goes at the next race.” Fourteen-year-old Morgan Benfield of The American Drag Racing League returns to
action June 11-12, with the ADRL Ford Drive One Summer Drags VI at U.S.
131 Motorsports Park in Taylor, an automotive repair shop owner from Dickinson, Texas,
covered the VMP eighth mile with his supercharged 2005 Corvette in 3.60
seconds at 208.71 mph to edge the 3.64 at 210.97 combination by His
Highness Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar for the top spot.
Also carrying number-one status into Saturday morning’s fourth
and final qualifying session were Shannon Jenkins in Pro Nitrous, Gary
White in Extreme 10.5, Pro Extreme Motorcycle’s Ashley Owens and
Bob Bertsch in Extreme Pro Stock. “I actually thought it said 3.68, which was still pretty
good because it would’ve backed up (within the required one
percent) my earlier 3.65 for the record, but then my eyes focused a
little better and I could see that zero on the end,” Taylor said.
“That was sweet!”
FINAL-ROUND PHOTOS
W: KH Al-Thani (far lane) RT: .034 3.650/210.60 vs Joshua Hernandez RT:
.024 4.000/183.22
Rickie Smith RT: .057 3.959/188.83 vs W: Shannon Jenkins (near lane)
RT: .032 3.892/194.27
W: Gary White (far lane) RT: .021
3.952/186.74 vs Todd Moyer RT: .088 4.030/194.55
Terry Schweigert RT: .065 4.161/169.40 vs W: Ashley Owens (near lane)
RT: .043 4.065/178.21
Cary
Tyler Allen RT: .038 8.093/79.34
(8.11 dial in) vs W: Morgan Benfield (near lane) RT: .046 8.005/81.08
(8.01 dial in)
Speedtech has a combined 50 years of championship winning nitrous
racing experience. Its stated goal is to provide all Speedtech
customers a safe and reliable nitrous system, technical advice and
tuning direction to exceed all expectations. Speedtech provides
efficient winning nitrous systems for all applications from the novice
to the professional racer at land, air and sea. Its state-of-the-art
facility allows Speedtech to engineer and manufacture industry-leading
nitrous systems that are user friendly and easy to install. More
importantly, every component Speedtech sells has been tested on its
flow bench and at the race track. For more information on Speedtech,
visit online atwww.SpeedtechNitrous.com.
Based in O’Fallon, 
Former two-time Pro Extreme champion Jason Scruggs placed
third at 3.66 seconds, with Taylor’s teammate “Wild
Wes” Johnston fourth after making a 3.67 pass at a potential
record 211.69 mph (if he also can back it up with another run within
one percent of that speed). Joshua Hernandez in the debut of a new
Fight Me MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) sponsorship rounded out the top five
with a 3.69-seconds effort. It was all Al-Anabi Racing at the head of the Pro Nitrous
list, with teammates Jenkins, Burton Auxier and Mike Castellana earning
the top three positions. Jenkins, who also was celebrating his 56th
birthday at the track, said his ’68 Camaro’s 3.87-seconds
pass at 193.79 mph was all the track would give him today as a present. “It was a good day; any day you qualify number one is a
good day,” the Tuscaloosa, Alabama-based veteran said. “We
could’ve been better, but sometimes you’ve just got to be
happy with what you’re given.”
New Market, Alabama’s White, who also led Extreme 10.5
qualifying at the ADRL’s previous race last Month in Georgia,
made his 4.00 seconds at 186.23-mph run of record in the opening round
of qualifying Friday morning with his turbocharged, inline-six-cylinder
2007 Scion. The nitrous oxide-boosted ’02 Grand Am of Houston,
Texas racer Jeff Naiser was second at 4.07, with 
At
just 186 cubic inches, the turbocharged six-cylinder engine in Gary
White’s ’07 Scion is by far the smallest competing in the
ADRL’s
diverse Extreme 10.5 class, but White still managed on Friday to secure
the provisional pole for the ADRL Speedtech U.S. Drags III. After opening with a class-leading 4.14-seconds blast, Owens
sat out Friday’s second go round in the heat of the day, but
returned with a 4.11 at 175.39 mph on his Fast by Gast Suzuki in the
evening Pro Extreme Motorcycle show. “Riding for Paul (Gast) makes everything easier on
me,” said Owens, who won the 
With
a brand-new, 1800-cc engine in his 2010 Suzuki, Pro Extreme Motorcycle
rider Ashley Owens secured the top qualifying position with a
4.11-seconds pass on Friday night at the ADRL Speedtech U.S. Drags III.
Canadian Terry Schweigert stepped up to place second with a
4.12 pass on his 2009 Suzuki, while Kim Morrell from Ft. Lauderdale,
Florida, became the ADRL’s quickest and fastest woman on two
wheels with a 4.15-seconds run at 173.81 mph. Bertsch proved the racing surface was in good shape from the
start as he rolled out of the trailer for round one and qualified with
an Extreme Pro Stock track record 4.06 at 177.53 mph that stood up
throughout the day. Following the Willis, Michigan-based driver and his
’07 Mustang were Elijah Morton at 4.07 and 176.86 mph and fellow
North Carolinian Jeff Dobbins with a 4.08 at 176.33-mph pass. “We came out thinking we were conservative today,”
Bertsch admitted later. “We just wanted to get a good run in and
have something to work with and we hit it right on.”
In the Pro Jr. Dragster class for eight- to 17-year-old
drivers, in which qualifying is determined by reaction times,
Manchester Kentucky’s Tyler Allen was one-thousandth of a second
away from perfect with a .001 light to earn the provisional pole. The fourth and final qualifying session for all classes at the
ADRL Speedtech U.S. Drags III is slated to begin at 9 a.m. Saturday
(May 22), with eliminations to follow.
Speedtech has a combined 50 years of
championship winning nitrous racing experience. Its stated goal is to
provide all Speedtech customers a safe and reliable nitrous system,
technical advice and tuning direction to exceed all expectations.
Speedtech provides efficient winning nitrous systems for all
applications from the novice to the professional racer at land, air and
sea. Its state-of-the-art facility allows Speedtech to engineer and
manufacture industry-leading nitrous systems that are user friendly and
easy to install. More importantly, every component Speedtech sells has
been tested on its flow bench and at the race track. For more
information on Speedtech, visit online atwww.SpeedtechNitrous.com. ABOUT THE ADRL
Based in O’Fallon,
Fight Me Revealed as Major Sponsor for
ADRL’s Hernandez
Hernandez, last year’s championship runner-up and
winningest driver in Pro Extreme history with six career race titles,
will debut his new Fight Me look in this weekend’s ADRL Speedtech
U.S. Drags III at
“It is so exciting for me to help introduce Fight Me to the ADRL audience,” the Conroe, Texas-based driver said. “I’m also looking forward to attending Fight Me events later this year and introducing the ADRL’s unique brand of eighth-mile drag racing to the millions of MMA fans around the world. It’s a knockout combination.”
Fight Me was established by the same principals behind the ADRL, Dave Wood, Tommy Lipar and Kenny Nowling, who serves as president and CEO for both sports organizations.
“One of the first objectives in launching Fight Me MMA is to create brand awareness and Dave, Tommy and I know very well what ADRL can do in that regard for its major sponsors, especially when associated with proven winners like Josh and his team,” Nowling said.
In addition to being located in the same office building as
ADRL headquarters in O’Fallon,
“Mixed martial arts is arguably the fastest-growing sport in the world and tremendous synergy exists between fans who attend ADRL national events and fans that will attend Fight Me events, beginning with the inaugural Fight Me 1 event July 17th at the Family Arena in St. Charles, Missouri,” Nowling added. “The ADRL has firmly established itself as an innovator in the drag racing world and I fully expect Fight Me to be the same in mixed martial arts.”
Following the ADRL Speedtech U.S. Drags III, Hernandez will
attend a press conference in
“I’m really happy about Fight Me coming on board, but I also recognize this as a tremendous opportunity for our race team, the ADRL and drag racing in general to increase its profile,” Hernandez said. “I’m ready to get it on in 2010 with Fight Me!”
ABOUT FIGHT ME
Based in O'Fallon,
ABOUT THE ADRL
Based in O’Fallon,
